U.S. Senator Speaks Out on Haiti Election Issues

It is encouraging to see Senator Leahy expressing some skepticism about international observers’ take on Haiti’s elections, which more often than not is in stark contrast to Haitians’ reports. In this Letter to the Editor, Senator Leahy also recognizes that the crucial issue in Haiti’s elections is the badly-damaged credibility of the electoral process.

Haiti elections

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, Miami Herald

March 30, 2016

It was interesting to read Roger Noriega’s March 12 opinion piece, Haiti’s politicians are the ones accountable in election chaos, in which he credits Sen. Marco Rubio with leading a “bipartisan group in the U.S. Congress calling for fair and transparent elections,” and that “[a]s a result, Michel Martelly had little choice but to convene elections last October.”

There are at least two problems with this: First, the Congress prohibited U.S. aid to the Martelly government unless it took steps to hold free and fair elections starting back in December 2014, long before Rubio raised his voice.